"In a world where death grants power, only the forgotten can rise."
Rain fell sideways across the loading yard, stinging like grit. A single Gate shimmered between two rust-stained cranes, its surface folding inward and out again like a pulse under glass.
Raven Ahn adjusted his hood and squinted at the shifting light. "Looks like it's bleeding," he muttered.
"Don't start with that creepy talk," said Marek, the team's tank, tightening a dented chest plate. "It's a D-rank cleanup. In and out."
Six of them today.
No elites. No cameras. Just another forgettable squad sent to mop up what the real Hunters left behind.
The Association truck idled nearby, its lights cutting pale cones through the rain. The team leader, old Captain Hwan, checked the readings one last time. "Residual mana only. Sector Twelve's almost burned out. Keep formation and watch your corners."
Raven half-listened. His gaze kept sliding back to the Gate. The ripples were wrong—too slow, too deep. The mana flow crawled instead of spun.
He'd seen plenty of Gates before. None had ever looked alive.
"Oi, Ahn," said Jinse, the archer. "You spacing out again?"
Raven blinked. "Just thinking."
"Stop thinking. That's how E-ranks die."
Laughter rippled through the group, sharp and nervous. Raven smiled thinly and checked his daggers. The steel edges were clean, but the grips were cracked—same as always. His paycheck barely covered repairs.
He wasn't here for glory. He was here because rent didn't care about rank.
Inside the Gate, the world changed.
The air thickened, heavy with copper and damp stone. A ceiling of cracked concrete stretched overhead, pipes leaking a constant drizzle. Their boots echoed off flooded floors.
Industrial-type dungeon. Probably an abandoned sewer repurposed by the Gate's mana.
"Smells like something died in here," Marek said, nose wrinkling.
"Lots of things," Raven murmured.
The leader raised a fist. "Quiet. Spread out."
They moved. Blades drawn, lights cutting narrow paths through the dark. The silence pressed close—too close. No skitter of beasts, no growls, no mana signatures on the scanners.
"Where are the mobs?" Jinse whispered.
Raven's eyes caught faint streams of light in the puddles. Mana veins—thin threads pulsing outward from the Gate deeper into the dungeon. He followed them with his sight, tracing the flow. They converged somewhere ahead, like blood vessels feeding a heart.
Something was waiting.
He opened his mouth to warn them, but Marek's laugh boomed first. "Maybe we lucked out. Easy pay, boys!"
Hwan shot him a look. "Don't jinx it."
Too late.
They reached a wide chamber. Broken machinery loomed like bones; catwalks hung twisted overhead.
Hwan raised his scanner again. "Still nothing. Let's clear—"
A low hum rolled through the air. Every puddle rippled at once.
The scanner spiked, shrieking.
"Contact!" Jinse yelled, bow drawn.
The far wall split open. A creature crawled out—pale, jointed wrong, its torso stitched from layers of stone and sinew. Its eyes burned blue.
"Only one? Take it!"
They rushed it. Marek led with a shield slam; sparks flew. Jinse's arrow buried in its neck. The healer chanted a buff.
Raven darted in low, daggers flashing. His blade bit shallow before the monster kicked him across the floor.
"Fast bastard!" someone shouted.
The thing moved like liquid muscle. Every strike they landed sealed shut with smoke.
"Captain, it's regenerating!"
"I can see that! Burn it!"
The mage hurled a fireball; the blast rocked the chamber. For a heartbeat, the creature sagged—then screamed. The echo twisted the air.
A new vibration rolled through the ground.
Raven looked up. Cracks snaked along the ceiling, glowing blue.
"Oh, hell—"
The ceiling burst.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of smaller creatures poured out, insect-thin and shrieking.
The team scattered. Steel clashed, mana flared, screams bounced off steel walls.
Raven slashed through one, two, three—his daggers sticky with dark ichor. He spun, barely ducking a claw that shredded the air above his head.
"Back to the Gate!" Hwan roared. "Fall back!"
But the Gate had changed. Its light no longer rippled; it churned like boiling tar.
Raven's breath hitched. "It's collapsing!"
A swarm cut Hwan off mid-shout. Blood sprayed across the concrete.
The healer went next, impaled before she could scream. Marek tried to drag her body back but vanished under a pile of limbs.
Jinse's arrows snapped mid-flight, then silence.
One by one, the voices stopped.
Raven stumbled behind a broken pipe, chest heaving. His arm burned where a claw had grazed it. The wound smoked faintly—mana corrosion.
He looked around the dark, searching for movement. Only the sound of dripping water and chewing.
Everyone was gone.
His stomach twisted. He gripped his daggers tighter though his hands trembled.
Don't freeze. Move.
He crawled out from behind the pipe and stepped carefully through the flooded hall. The air smelled of iron.
Something huge shifted in the dark ahead. The first monster—the stitched one—was still alive, half-melted, absorbing its dead kin. Its chest expanded with each breath, bones cracking outward, forming jagged armor.
Its glowing eyes turned toward him.
Raven swallowed. "You've got to be kidding me."
It roared. The sound hit like a hammer.
He ran.
Feet splashed through puddles. He slid under a fallen beam, rolled, threw a dagger backward on instinct. It bounced off the creature's hide.
The tunnel ahead led to the Gate chamber. If he could reach it—
The floor cracked. A limb punched through and caught his leg. Pain flared white. He hit the ground hard, daggers skittering away.
The creature crawled closer, dragging itself like a mountain coming alive.
Raven tried to crawl. The limb around his leg tightened, crushing bone. He screamed, voice raw.
I don't want to die here. Not like this.
He slammed a fist against the floor, eyes wide, desperate.
Somewhere deep inside the dungeon, a faint chime echoed.
> [Life signs critical.]
The sound wasn't real. It vibrated inside his skull.
> [User at terminal threshold. Searching for compatible link…]
"What—?"
Symbols flickered across his vision, blue and sharp, burning like frost.
> [Soul resonance detected. Initiating transfer protocol.]
The monster's shadow fell over him.
Raven gasped, blood filling his mouth. The cold voice whispered again—calm, absolute.
> [Deathbound System Initializing…]
Then the world went white.